I am absolutely flabbergasted that very few are pointing this out. People seem to rally against Iran because of some hypothetical scenario where it could become...exactly like Israel.
How far back do we want to go? We could go back to 1948 when the precursor to the IDF poisoned the wells of the Arab villages they captured, so if the Arabs returned they'd get typhoid.
You put an arbitrary cutoff date in 2023. But going back to 1948 allows your opponents to add the Iran-Iraq wars (which Iran could have ended; "Estimates of total casualties range from 1,000,000 to twice that number."), and of course the creation of Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as the continuous, violent suppression of Iranians.
Iran is by no means a sane country, not even compared to present-day Israel.
- Did not sign the non-proliferation treaty
- Does not allow IAEA inspectors into their country
- Nuclear weapons program widely believed to have started from material stolen from the US
- Prime Minister wanted by the ICC for war crimes.
Since 2023, they have:
- Invaded and occupied parts of Syria and Lebanon
- Bombed Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen
- Killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza
The Islamic Republic of Iran appears sane, rational, and peaceful by comparison. Quite an achievement!